1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to a child-resistant cap and container and, more particularly, to a child-resistant cap and container having a flexible tab formed in a bottom portion of an outer skirt and a tooth affixed at the neck of a bottle for edgewise locking engagement with the tab.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Numerous child-resistant mechanisms for preventing access to containers storing dangerous substances such as medicine, household cleaners, poisons or the like are known. Most, however, are complicated in design which drives up the cost of manufacturing the caps and containers. Also, typical child-resistant containers are often difficult to open as they require a user to exert an appreciable amount of force while simultaneously engaging in a sequence of complex manipulative movements to release the cap closure mechanism. For these reasons, many child-resistant mechanisms are unsuitable for physically feeble persons such as the elderly and the sick.
For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,989,152 and 4,149,646 to Julian disclose a child-resistant cap having a tab provided in the bottom of the skirt of the cap, and a container having an abutment disposed at the neck of the container for locking engagement with the tab. A user is required to squeeze or flex the entire skirt while twisting the cap off so as to deflect the tab radially inwardly and around the abutment at the container neck. Such squeezing action would require an appreciable amount of force which may not be available to a physically feeble user.
Another example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,413,742 to Sandhaus discloses a cap having a tab that is frictionally receivable in a recess defined in the neck of the container. To remove the cap, the user is required to push out the hinged tab by, for example, depressing the top of the cap. To reinstall the cap over the container, the user must thread the cap onto the container neck and realign the tab with the recess in the neck.
In still another example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,752,014 to House et al. discloses a child-resistant closure having a ratchet type mechanism. The cap includes a flexible tab notched in the depending skirt of the cap. The tab is movable in the radially outward direction and has a pawl extending from a bottom surface of the tab. A plurality of recesses are formed at the neck of the container for receiving the pawl. Thus, as a user threads the cap onto the container neck, the pawl is brought into ratchet engagement with the recesses in the neck. To open the container, a user is required to pivot the tab and the pawl radially outwardly so as to remove the pawl from the recess received therein. This ratchet type mechanism is complex in design and expensive to manufacture. Furthermore, this design does not provide the requisite positive locking unless the user screws the cap on with adequate force so that the pawl is sufficiently received in one of recesses.
Other child-resistant closures with tab-actuated mechanisms are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,449,077 to Seidler, U.S. Pat. No. 5,460,281 to Rapchak et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 4,752,013 to Miller et al.